The enormous diversity of Hinduism reflects its long history of more than 3000 years and the hundreds of millions of people who follow Hinduism (Colledge, 1999).

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Introduction

The enormous diversity of Hinduism reflects its long history of more than 3000 years and the hundreds of millions of people who follow Hinduism (Colledge, 1999). There is no single right pattern of being a Hindu, as the religious experiences and the traditions people have received are heterogeneous (Killingley, 2003). Thus, one must be open to the diversity and flexibility of Hinduism, and bare in mind that any general statements about Hinduism are subject to exceptions (Killingley, 2003).

Hindus began appearing Britain in significant numbers from 1950s onwards, and a new wave of Hindu immigration came from East Africa due to the 'Africanisation' policies in the 1960s and 1970s (Colledge, 1999). As Hindu communities have established themselves by opening houses of worship within their new host countries, Hinduism has transformed into an international religion with "international notions of space" (Caswell, 1996: 1).

The first generation of immigrants had difficulty of coping with English language and customs; where as the British born generations may find it difficult to retain their sense of Hindu identity (Colledge, 1999). This background provides an interesting setting for research and we took the opportunity to study the only Hindu temple in Glasgow: Hindu Mandir, in order to investigate how Hindu identity and Hindu traditions continue in the British context.

The beautiful building of Hindu Mandir was built in 1857 and it has been a Hindu temple since 1994. It is located in the prestigious West End of Glasgow. Previously the building was also used as a church. 250 - 300 people visit Hindu Mandir every Sunday, when the formal worship, conducted by a priest takes place. However, worshippers come and go at other times making private offerings and prayers. People also celebrate their birthdays, weddings, graduation parties and the major Hindu festivals in the temple. On Monday evenings basic Hinduism is taught in the temple and a Hindu youth group meets there every Wednesday, as well as another club for older people meets in these premises. Thus Hindu Mandir can be seen as an active community centre. Hindu Mandir does not receive any government funding and it is entirely dependent on donations by its members. All the staff in the temple are volunteers. Hindu Mandir has got approximately 260 family members, which makes approximately 700 - 800 individuals. One-year membership costs £ 2 per family. Hindu Mandir has got 13 committee members, of which 7 are women. The committee members are selected through election every four years, and they are responsible for organising the events, which take place in the temple. We received a very warm welcome and gracious hospitality while carrying out our fieldwork in the Hindu Mandir temple.

Michelle Caswell (1996) carried out research within two Hindu temples in New York. She looked at the consequences of class tensions within the American Hindu community. The Geeta temple Ashram is a traditional orange and white marble North Indian building, which was built in 1972. It reflects the wealth of the first wave immigrants (Caswell, 1996). The Hindu temple society has been criticized of putting only wealthy people on Geeta's board of trustees. Williams writes: "Differences in social status...and educational background create tensions in some of the organizations of the Asian-Indian community."(cited in Caswell, 1996:2). The Divya Dham temple was partly built as a response to these class tensions, as the new less affluent immigrants began to establish their own sacred spaces (Caswell, 1996). Divya Dham is located in former electronics factory and its main deity (god): Vaisno Devi, "appeals to people of all castes and walks of life" back in India (Erndl, cited in Caswell, 1996:2). Divya Dham temple "seems to bring the deities ... to working class immigrants in a way that older temples cannot." (Caswell, 1996:2).

We were interested in seeing whether we could discover a trace of similar class tensions within Hindu Mandir, which Caswell reported. However, our main focus was on investigating the issues of identity and belonging, which Hindu Mandir may have to offer for its members. There was four members in our research group: myself: Ann-Mari Pynnonen, Julia Wallace, Jenny Bryans and Anna Beesley. Our project concentrated on the use of space in the Hindu Mandir and we looked at what does the space mean to the people who use it. We observed the form of rituals and symbolism, which are performed in the Hindu Mandir. We were curious about the consequences of having people with various cultural backgrounds using the same worshipping space. Would people find this problematic? Is the feeling or experience of worshipping different in Glasgow than in India? Is Hindu Mandir able to represent India and create a sense of home among the worshippers? We were curious whether people were satisfied with the appearance of the temple and whether the experience of worship would be different if the building was different? We also looked at power relations in terms of gender differences and differences between older and younger people.

Research Methods

Our fieldwork started on the 1st of February 2004 and it was completed by the 22nd of February 2004. During this time we visited the Hindu Mandir Temple on four Sundays, when the public temple worship takes place. Our main research methods were participant observation and interviewing. We also kept a fieldwork diary, took photographs, and we handed out questionnaires to the worshippers. Our group met once a week to discuss our previous findings and to share the collected data. We also planned together some of the content of the interviews and wrote down what kind of questions we were going to ask during the next temple visit. The interviews were recorded by writing the interviewees' responses down.

We engaged in participant-observation by taking part to the Hindu worship. We observed people as they entered the worshipping area and performed puja: services to gods. By imitating other Hindus we also carried out certain puja activities ourselves. We observed how the people interact and use the space during the worship ceremony. When the religious service was completed, we were always invited to join the worshippers to the dining area, where we had lunch together. This was a good opportunity to chat with many Hindus as well as to observe the dynamics of this social aspect of the temple visit.

We had a very limited amount of time after the lunch during which to interview people, and thus we preferred that each member of our group individually interviewed people, as it provided a way to gain more data within a short time period. We also preferred this form of interviewing in terms of establishing a more personal and close contact with the interviewee. The interviews took place in an area designed for socializing, as it was furnished with many armchairs (see appendix 1, picture 7). We tended to approach people who looked available to be interviewed at that time, and many people approached us themselves willing to be interviewed. There were often many interruptions during the interviews, as the interviewees' friends approached them, and sometimes it was difficult to concentrate, because there was a lot of traffic in the socializing area as people were talking to each other and queuing to get lunch or leaving the temple after lunch. All the armchairs were taken by groups of friends chatting to each other, and a very loud hand-dryer was continuously in use, as people washed their hands. However, after a while it always became quieter as there was only a few people left in the temple and at this point the interviewing was much easier.

Our aim was to interview equal amount of men and women in order to avoid a gender bias in our sample, as we were interested in looking at gender related issues. We also tried to include members of all age groups in our sample. However, our sample includes slightly more male interviewees than female ones, as men tended to approach us and be willing to be interviewed more often than women, which is an interesting phenomenon in itself. Unfortunately, young people are also somewhat overrepresented in our sample. Perhaps other students were curious about our study and perhaps we found mutual interest to each other, as we belong to the same age group and have similar life circumstances, which also unintentionally made it easier to approach each other.

The participants enjoyed teaching us about Hinduism in general, although they were often worried about giving us wrong information, even though we were trying to emphasize that we were interested in their personal experiences rather than in finding the accurate ways of being a Hindu. Before the interviews, it was made clear to the people that they have the right to refuse to answer any questions and that they can terminate the interview at any time. They were also ensured anonymity and all the names of the participants used in this project have been changed.

Observations

We interviewed 22 people, of which 13 were men and 9 were women. Most of the interviews lasted approximately 15 - 20 minutes, but some of the interviews were very brief, lasting only few minutes.

The age range of our sample is as follows:

3 men and 1 woman were between 20 to 25 years old.

3 men and 1 woman were between 25 to 30 years old.

man and 3 women were between 30 to 40 years old.

3 men and 2 women were between 40 to 50 years old.

man and 1 woman were between 50 to 60 years old.

2 men and 1 woman were between 60 to 70 years old.

The occupational categories of the people who we interviewed are as follows:

Students: 5 men and 1 woman.

Working class: 1 man and 1 woman.

Academics: 3 men and 1 woman.

Retired: 2men and 1 woman.

4 women were housewives, and the occupational status of 2 men and 1 woman is unknown.

The nationalities of the people who we interviewed are as follows:
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7 Indians. Most of the people who we talked to were from North India.

British male and 1 British - Asian woman, who was born in Britain.

2 men were from Sri Lanka.

woman was from Malaysia.

Two committee members: approximately 55 years old Indian woman, who is the vice-president of the committee and one older Indian man were interviewed briefly about the temple itself. I also met a 36 years old Indian Hindu monk on the street while he was selling cd:s. He lives in a temple in Glasgow, and as he told ...

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